George Fox and the Quaker Movement | George Fox University About George Fox George Fox and the Quaker (Friends) Movement "There is one, even Christ Jesus, that can speak to thy condition." This discovery of Christ as a present reality turned George Fox from frustrated seeker to joyous finder and initiated a major Christian awakening in England. George Fox was 23 years old (1647), and already a discerning critic of his culture. When human counselors could not fill his spiritual void, he turned to Bible reading and prayer, often in the sanctuary of "hollow trees and lonesome places." On some of these occasions he received "openings," e.g., that attending a university does not make a minister, that "the people not the steeple is the church," and that the same Spirit who inspired the Scriptures is their true interpreter. Even as a lad Fox was unusually sensitive to God, having been well taught by godly parents. He remembered experiencing the "pureness" of divine presence at the age of 11. This vision of the world as God wants it contrasted starkly with the world of political violence and ecclesiastical hypocrisy which he experienced as a youth.

George Fox worked first as a cobbler and then as a partner with a wool and cattle dealer. His integrity brought him commercial success. But the spiritual conflict raged furiously within him until his experience of Christ brought peace. A Movement Begins From his spiritual epiphany until 1652, Fox engaged in itinerant ministry, preaching at the close of Puritan meetings, or outdoors before crowds. Fox exhorted seekers to heed the voice of Christ within, to be honest in business, compassionate to the needy, and to share in the free ministry of the true church. Large numbers of people were "convinced" (converted) through his preaching, and opposition intensified. Fox was thrown down church steps, beaten with sticks and once with a brass-bound Bible! He refused to be intimidated, and his courage and physical stamina gave credibility to a central theme of his preaching: the power through Christ to live a holy life. For such preaching, Fox spent six months in Derby jail. Offered release if he would accept a commission in Cromwell's army, Fox refused, saying Christ had brought him into the "covenant of peace." For this he was jailed another six months.

Historians mark 1652 as the beginning of the Quaker movement. One day George Fox climbed up desolate Pendle Hill (believed to be a haunt of demons) and saw "a people in white raiment, coming to the Lord." The vision signified that proclaiming Christ's power over sin would gather people to the kingdom. And it did. By 1660, there were 50,000 followers. Zealous young men and women ("the valiant sixty") joined Fox in preaching at fairs, marketplaces, in the fields, in the jails, in the courts, and through the printing press. Gervase Benson, Edward Burrough, John Audland, Mary Fisher, Francis Howgill, and William Dewsbury and others gave significant ministry. Some men left Cromwell's army to join what James Nayler termed "the Lamb's war." Growth and Persecution At first these fired-up Christians called themselves "children of the Light," "publishers of Truth," or "the camp of the Lord." Gradually they came to prefer the term "Friends," in accord with Jesus' words found in John 15:14 .

Critics, seeing only emotional exuberance had dubbed them "Quakers," in response to which Fox, with more fire than tact, told a tormenting judge he should tremble at the word of the Lord! The restoration of monarchy did not bring relief from harassment, as Quakers had hoped. In fact, the Clarendon Code of 1662 and 1664 put thousands of Quakers in prison for illegal assembly and refusing test oaths. Three were hanged in Boston for their witness to religious liberty, one a grandmother, Mary Dyer, whose statue on Boston Common testifies to the price paid for religious freedom. After release from prison in 1666, Fox visited British Friends to set up a system of local and regional meetings, which diffused authority in what Fox believed was the gospel order. In this way, the cult of personality was resisted. In 1669, Fox married a widow, Margaret Fell. Her home in Swarthmoor had served for many years as a headquarters, and her own public ministry (including long imprisonment) added strength to Friends. Their marriage was a loving one, and her children honored Fox and cared for him in London during his later years.

During the 1670s, Fox traveled extensively in Europe, the West Indies, and America, and sustained the movement through widely circulated pastoral letters and doctrinal writings. At his death in 1691, Friends numbered 100,000, mostly in England, Scotland, and the American Colonies. Legacy George Fox's personal dynamism, Spirit anointed, made him a powerful preacher, a penetrating seer, a gentle pastor, and occasionally a healer. He led into ministry servants such as Mary Fisher and aristocrats such as William Penn and Isaac Penington. Fox could be devastating to critics, but also persuasive, as when he pled with a burdened, tearful Oliver Cromwell, "lay your crown at Jesus' feet!" To those who longed for a more authentic Christianity, Fox's sermons, rich in biblical metaphor and common speech, brought hope in a dark time.

His oft reprinted Journal is a Christian classic and aphorisms from his letters continue to inspire, e.g., "Truth can live in the jails," "be valiant for Truth upon the earth and tread upon deceit," and "keep on the mountain of holiness." Schools in several countries bear his name, as does this one, George Fox University. By Arthur O. Roberts, PhD, Professor at Large, George Fox University George Fox, founder of the Quakers - 1601-1700 Church History Timeline / Church / Church History / Timeline / 1601-1700 / George Fox, founder of the Quakers George Fox, founder of the Quakers Dan Graves, MSL Tweet "Whoever won't drink pays!" The young men were taking in a fair. George Fox had gone in with them to order a jug of beer. He was thirsty and in 1643 no one thought it wrong for teens to drink. They were all Christian lads. "I, being thirsty, went in with them, for I loved any who had a sense of good, or that sought after the Lord," wrote George later.

But, "When we had drunk a glass apiece, they began to drink healths, and called for more drink..." George was upset that youths who claimed to be Christian would challenge each other to a drinking bout. Even non- Christians had never suggested such a thing to him. He got up, took a small coin from his pocket and laid it on the table, saying, "If that's the way its going to be, I'm going." Significant results came from that drinking bout. George went home when his business was done. But the incident troubled him so much that he didn't go to bed that night, but walked up and down, praying and crying to the Lord, "who said unto me, 'You see how young people go together into frivolity, and old people into the earth; you must leave all, young and old, keep out of all, and be as a stranger unto all.'" That was the spiritual crisis of George Fox's life. He left home and wandered alone, seeking spiritual answers. As he meditated on scripture, insights came to him. He saw that only those who are actually born of God are Christians. The Lord could and would teach any man who belonged to him.

God did not dwell in churches made by men but in individual hearts. Conversing with those who were thought to be holy, investigating claims and cults, immersing himself in Bible reading and prayer, he reached the conclusion that no one had answers for his inner unhappiness. The majority of religious leaders seemed to him to live in darkness and sin. He described one as a hollow cask. "When all my hopes in them and in all men were gone, so that I had nothing outwardly to help me, nor could I tell what to do, then, oh, then, I heard a voice which said, 'There is one, even Christ Jesus, that can speak to thy condition'; and when I heard it, my heart did leap for joy." George learned to rely on inner illumination from the Lord, who would direct him to the work he was to do in each place he went. He formed the Society of Friends (Quakers). Acting according to their consciences, they exercised a profound influence for good on the world. For daring to be different, George suffered at least six imprisonments. However, he won converts among fellow prisoners and the jailors. But he also testified before public figures like Oliver Cromwell.

George Fox died in 1690. Penn says, "He had the comfort of a short illness, and the blessing of a clear sense to the last; and we may truly say with a man of God of old, that 'being dead, he yet speaketh'; and though absent in body, he is present in Spirit..." Resources: "Fox, George." Dictionary of National Biography. Fox, George. The Journal of George Fox. More in 1601-1700 The Beginnings of Quakerism - Historical Roots of the Religious Society of Friends, by Bill Samuel - QuakerInfo.com The Beginnings of Quakerism by Bill Samuel Originally published July 12, 1998 at Suite101.com George Fox is generally called the founder of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). In the mid-17th century, he was a young man who wandered around England talking with priests, religious scholars and others seeking to find religious meaning. Generally, he found that those to whom he spoke had a lot of intellectual knowledge, but did not seem to really have a true connection with God.

His Journal of George Fox reported the following experience he had after several years of this search: And when all my hopes in them and all men were gone. . . I heard a voice which said, "There is one, even Christ Jesus, that can speak to thy condition," and when I heard it, my heart did leap for joy. Later, Fox felt led to climb a "great hill" called Pendle Hill in northern England where he had a vision of "a great people to be gathered." He became an itinerant preacher, telling people they could learn directly from their true Teacher, Jesus Christ. Christ would convict them of their sins and provide them with the possibility of living a life free from sin. As he was traveling across northern England, he came upon a dissenting Christian group about which there is little historical record, and even what they called themselves is unknown although they are sometimes referred to as the "Westmoreland Seekers." This group worshipped without any priests or paid leadership, settling into silence with any who felt moved by the Holy Spirit offering vocal ministry. They apparently had several congregations. Fox came to a general meeting of this group. The elders of this group examined him, and found him doctrinally sound.

He then became the accepted spiritual leader of the movement. Under Fox' leadership, the group became known as Publishers of Truth and eventually the Religious Society of Friends. Thus his work of gathering a people initially involved gathering already organized groups of people. In 1652, George Fox arrived at Swarthmoor Hall near Morecambe Bay, the estate of Judge Thomas Fell, a highly respected member of the aristocracy. Judge Fell, whose position required traveling around on a circuit, was not home, nor was his wife Margaret, an accomplished aristocratic woman who managed the estate whenever her husband was away from home. Fox talks a long time with the Fells' parish priest William Lampitt, who Fox refers to as "a man full of filth." Lampitt does not want Fox at Swarthmoor Hall. Margaret Fell soon comes home and hears Fox. She is impressed and invites Fox to the parish church. Fox comes in as Lampitt is about to speak and asks permission to preach. As Lampitt is beholden to the Fells, he gives Fox permission. Margaret Fell finds Fox is preaching the truth she has been seeking for.

Over the next three weeks, Fox stays at Swarthmoor Hall and Fell's family and servants also become convinced of the Truth. When Judge Fell comes back, Lampitt warns him about Fox and what he perceives as Fox' dangerous influence over Margaret and others at Swarthmoor Hall. Judge Fell listens to Fox, and Margaret reports she felt the power of God go through her husband. Judge Fell never actually becomes a Friend, but allows Friends to meet at Swarthmoor Hall and serves in many ways to help protect them from persecution. From this point, Swarthmoor Hall becomes the nerve center of the burgeoning movement. It is a place where traveling Friends evangelists came to rest and receive encouragement. Margaret administers a fund to help those imprisoned for the faith and to help meet expenses of Friends traveling in the ministry. She keeps in correspondence with the "Valiant Sixty," the traveling evangelists (men and women) and other key people in the movement. After Judge Fell's death, she marries George Fox, a marriage of equals in keeping with Friends' principles.

This unites perhaps the two most important figures of the early period of Quakerism, although George is traveling or in prison during most of their married life and they spend very little time together. I have barely touched upon the faith of early Friends, and there is much more that could be written. But I wish to keep this article reasonably short, and so will stop here. A number of writings of early Friends can be found at these two Web sites: George Fox and the Quakers: Christian History “Then, at the command of God, the ninth of the Seventh month, 1643, I left my relations, and broke off all familiarity or fellowship with young or old.” George Fox Founds the Quakers. Journal by George Fox. Excerpted and introduced for Christian History Institute by Dan Graves. Introduction George Fox was founder of the Quakers, so called because they trembled before God. In opposition to the obvious coldness and corruption of the church of his day, Fox chose to be guided by the inward light of Christ (fed by continual immersion in the Bible) and rejected the trappings of formal religion and undue respect to men, whatever their elevation. For this he suffered many imprisonments.

Under tyrants, prisons are places of terrible retribution and injustice. Included in our excerpts are a description of possibly the nastiest prison conditions recorded in Christian history. The Event that Drove Fox to Seek God When I came towards nineteen years of age, being upon business at a fair, one of my cousins, whose name was Bradford, having another professor [i.e.: someone who professed to be a Christian] with him, came and asked me to drink part of a jug of beer with them. I, being thirsty, went in with them, for I loved any who had a sense of good, or that sought after the Lord. When we had drunk a glass apiece, they began to drink healths, and called for more drink, agreeing together that he that would not drink should pay all. I was grieved that any who made profession of religion should offer to do so. They grieved me very much, having never had such a thing put to me before by any sort of people.

Wherefore I rose up, and, putting my hand in my pocket, took out a groat, and laid it upon the table before them, saying, “If it be so, I will leave you.” So I went away; and when I had done my business returned home; but did not go to bed that night, nor could I sleep, but sometimes walked up and down, and sometimes prayed and cried to the Lord, who said unto me: “Thou seest how young people go together into vanity, and old people into the earth; thou must forsake all, young and old, keep out of all, and be as a stranger unto all.” Then, at the command of God, the ninth of the Seventh month, 1643, I left my relations, and broke off all familiarity or fellowship with young or old. In His Misery, Fox Keeps Apart After this I went to another, one Macham, a priest in high account.

He would needs give me some physic, and I was to have been let blood; but they could not get one drop of blood from me, either in arms or head (though they endeavoured to do so), my body being, as it were, dried up with sorrows, grief and troubles, which were so great upon me that I could have wished I had never been born, or that I had been born blind, that I might never have seen wickedness or vanity; and deaf, that I might never have heard vain and wicked words, or the Lord’s name blasphemed. When the time called Christmas came, while others were feasting and sporting themselves I looked out poor widows from house to house, and gave them some money. When I was invited to marriages (as I sometimes was), I went to none at all; but the next day, or soon after, I would go and visit them, and if they were poor I gave them some money; for I had wherewith both to keep myself from being chargeable to others and to administer something to the necessities of those who were in need.

About the beginning of the year 1646, as I was going to Coventry, and approaching towards the gate, a consideration arose in me, how it was said that “All Christians are believers, both Protestants and Papists"; and the Lord opened to me that if all were believers, then they were all born of God, and passed from death to life; and that none were true believers but such; and, though others said they were believers, yet they were not. At another time, as I was walking in a field on a First-day morning, the Lord opened unto me that being bred at Oxford or Cambridge was not enough to fit and qualify men to be ministers of Christ; and I wondered at it, because it was the common belief of people. But I saw it clearly as the Lord opened it unto me, and was satisfied, and admired the goodness of the Lord, who had opened this thing unto me that morning. The Answer to Fox’s Spiritual Agony But as I had forsaken the priests, so I left the separate preachers [those who wanted to separate from the Church of England] also, and those esteemed the most experienced people; for I saw there was none among them all that could speak to my condition.

When all my hopes in them and in all men were gone, so that I had nothing outwardly to help me, nor could I tell what to do, then, oh, then, I heard a voice which said, “There is one, even Christ Jesus, that can speak to thy condition;” and when I heard it, my heart did leap for joy. Examples of Fox’s Early Work At a certain time, when I was at Mansfield, there was a sitting of the justices about hiring of servants; and it was upon me from the Lord to go and speak to the justices, that they should not oppress the servants in their wages. So I walked towards the inn where they sat; but finding a company of fiddlers there, I did not go in, but thought to come in the morning, when I might have a more serious opportunity to discourse with them. But when I came in the morning, they were gone, and I was struck even blind, that I could not see. I inquired of the innkeeper where the justices were to sit that day; and he told me, at a town eight miles off. My sight began to come to me again; and I went and ran thitherward as fast as I could.

When I was come to the house where they were, and many servants with them, I exhorted the justices not to oppress the servants in their wages, but to do that which was right and just to them; and I exhorted the servants to do their duties, and serve honestly. They all received my exhortation kindly; for I was moved of the Lord therein. Moreover, I was moved to go to several courts and steeple—houses at Mansfield, and other places, to warn them to leave off oppression and oaths, and to turn from deceit to the Lord, and to do justly. Particularly at Mansfield, after I had been at a court there, I was moved to go and speak to one of the most wicked men in the country, one who was a common drunkard, a noted whore-master, and a rhyme-maker; and I reproved him in the dread of the mighty God, for his evil courses. When I had done speaking, and left him, he came after me, and told me that he was so smitten when I spoke to him, that he had scarcely any strength left in him.

So this man was convinced, and turned from his wickedness, and remained an honest, sober man, to the astonishment of the people who had known him before. Thus the work of the Lord went forward, and many were turned from the darkness to the light, within the compass of these three years, 1646, 1647 and 1648. Diverse meetings of Friends, in several places, were then gathered to God’s teaching, by his light, Spirit, and power; for the Lord’s power broke forth more and more wonderfully. Fox Abused for Rejecting Customs Moreover, when the Lord sent me forth into the world, He forbade me to put off my hat to any, high or low; and I was required to Thee and Thou all men and women, without any respect to rich or poor, great or small. And as I travelled up and down I was not to bid people Good morrow, or Good evening; neither might I bow or scrape with my leg to any one; and this made the sects and professions to rage.

But the Lord’s power carried me over all to His glory, and many came to be turned to God in a little time; for the heavenly day of the Lord sprung from on high, and broke forth apace, by the light of which many came to see where they were. Oh, the blows, punchings, beatings, and imprisonments that we underwent for not putting off our hats to men! Some had their hats violently plucked off and thrown away, so that they quite lost them. The bad language and evil usage we received on this account are hard to be expressed, besides the danger we were sometimes in of losing our lives for this matter; and that by the great professors of Christianity, who thereby discovered [revealed] they were not true believers. Examples of Miracles Worked Through Fox Coming to Mansfield-Woodhouse, I found there a distracted [mentally ill] woman under a doctor’s hand, with her hair loose about her ears. He was about to let her blood, she being first bound, and many people about her, holding her by violence; but he could get no blood from her.

I desired them to unbind her and let her alone, for they could not touch the spirit in her by which she was tormented. So they did unbind her; and I was moved to speak to her, and in the name of the Lord to bid her be quiet; and she was so. The Lord’s power settled her mind, and she mended. Afterwards she received the truth, and continued in it to her death; and the Lord’s name was honored. There was in that town a great man that had long lain sick, and was given up by the physicians; and some Friends in the town desired me to go to see him. I went up to him in his chamber, and spoke the Word of life to him, and was moved to pray by him; and the Lord was entreated, and restored him to health. Fox Imprisoned in a Dreadful Place The assizes being over, and we settled in prison upon such a commitment that we were not likely to be soon released, we broke off from giving the jailer seven shillings a week apiece for our horses, and seven shillings a week for ourselves, and sent our horses into the country.

Upon which he grew very wicked and devilish, and put us down into Doomsdale, a nasty, stinking place, where they used to put murderers after they were condemned. The place was so noisome [smelly] that it was observed few that went in did ever come out again in health. There was no house of office [restroom] in it; and the excrement of the prisoners that from time to time had been put there had not been carried out (as we were told) for many years. So that it was all like mire, and in some places to the tops of the shoes in water and urine; and he would not let us cleanse it, nor suffer us to have beds or straw to lie on. At night some friendly people of the town brought us a candle and a little straw; and we burned a little of our straw to take away the stink. The thieves lay over our heads, and the head jailer in a room by them, over our heads also.

It seems the smoke went up into the room where the jailer lay; which put him into such a rage that he took the pots of excrement from the thieves and poured them through a hole upon our heads in Doomsdale, till we were so bespattered that we could not touch ourselves nor one another. And the stink increased upon us; so that what with stink, and what with smoke, we were almost choked and smothered. We had the stink under our feet before, but now we had it on our heads and backs also; and he having quenched our straw with the filth he poured down, had made a great smother in the place. Moreover, he railed [spoke bitterly] at us most hideously, calling us hatchet-faced dogs, and such strange names as we had never heard of. In this manner we were obliged to stand all night, for we could not sit down, the place was so full of filthy excrement. A great while he kept us after this manner before he would let us cleanse it, or suffer us to have any victuals [food] brought in but what we got through the grate.

One time a girl brought us a little meat; and he arrested her for breaking his house, and sued her in the town-court for breaking the prison. A great deal of trouble he put the young woman to; whereby others were so discouraged that we had much ado to get water, drink, or victuals. Near this time we sent for a young woman, Ann Downer, from London, who could write and take things well in short-hand, to buy and dress our meat for us; which she was very willing to do, it being also upon her spirit to come to us in the love of God; and she was very serviceable to us. The head-jailer, we were informed, had been a thief, and was burnt [branded] both in the hand and in the shoulder; his wife, too, had been burnt in the hand. The under-jailer had been burnt both in the hand and in the shoulder: his wife had been burnt in the hand also. Colonel Bennet, a Baptist teacher, having purchased the jail and lands belonging to the castle, had placed this head-jailer there.

The prisoners and some wild people would be talking of spirits that haunted Doomsdale, and how many had died in it, thinking perhaps to terrify us therewith. But I told them that if all the spirits and devils in hell were there, I was over them in the power of God, and feared no such thing; for Christ, our Priest, would sanctify the walls of the house to us, He who had bruised the head of the devil. The priest was to cleanse the plague out of the walls of the house under the law, which had been ended by Christ, our Priest, who sanctifies both inwardly and outwardly the walls of the house, the walls of the heart, and all things to his people. By this time the general quarter-sessions drew nigh; and the jailer still carrying himself basely and wickedly towards us, we drew up our suffering case, and sent it to the sessions at Bodmin. On the reading thereof, the justices gave order that Doomsdale door should be opened, and that we should have liberty to cleanse it, and to buy our meat in the town.

We also sent a copy of our sufferings to the Protector [Cromwell], setting forth how we had been taken and committed by Major Ceely; and abused by Captain Keat as aforesaid, and the rest in order. The Protector sent down an order to Captain Fox, governor of Pendennis Castle, to examine the matter about the soldiers abusing us, and striking me. There were at that time many of the gentry of the country at the Castle; and Captain Keat’s kinsman, that struck me, was sent for before them, and much threatened. They told him that if I should change my principles, I might take the extremity of the law against him, and might recover sound damages of him. Captain Keat also was checked, for suffering the prisoners under his charge to be abused. This was of great service in the country; for afterwards Friends might speak in any market or steeple-house thereabouts, and none would meddle with them. I understood that Hugh Peters, one of the Protector’s chaplains, told him they could not do George Fox a greater service for the spreading of his principles in Cornwall, than to imprison him there.

And indeed my imprisonment there was of the Lord, and for His service in those parts; for after the assizes were over, and it was known that we were likely to continue prisoners, several Friends from most parts of the nation came in to the country to visit us. Those parts of the west were very dark countries at that time but the Lord’s light and truth broke forth, shone over all, and many were turned from darkness to light, and from Satan’s power unto God. Many were moved to go to the steeple-houses; and several were sent to prison to us; and a great convincement began in the country. For now we had liberty to come out, and to walk in the Castle-Green; and many came to us on First-days [Sundays], to whom we declared the Word of life... Review & Discussion What event precipitated Fox’s spiritual seclusion? Fox relied much on what he called “inner light.” When would reliance on inner light be trustworthy and when could it be dangerously misleading? How would a bystander know the difference? How closely have modern Quakers adhered to Biblical teaching? What knowledge finally brought Fox spiritual relief and joy?

Describe some of the actions and statements Fox felt God led him to do or say. Do they conform to God’s word? What kinds of actions did God not allow Fox to partake of? Have his principles changed our culture in any way? How would you explain Fox’s success with deranged and sick individuals? How do you explain the rage of “Christians” against someone who refused to follow social customs such as tipping the hat? What consolation did Fox have after suffering in a dreadful Doomsdale prison? Contents Support Us Christian History Institute (CHI) is a non-profit Pennsylvania corporation founded in 1982. Your donations support the continuation of this ministry. Biography of George Fox George Fox, 1624-91 Itinerant preacher who founded the Quaker movement and ensured its survival into the modern world. The son of a prosperous Puritan weaver of Leicestershire, George Fox was apprenticed to a shoemaker around 1635. During his youth, he was plagued by periods of melancholy and religious torment, which led him to adopt an itinerant life as a travelling shoemaker.

He travelled around Leicestershire, Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire seeking out clergymen and others for spiritual guidance, but broke away from the established church when he found it unable to meet his needs. At some time in 1647, Fox experienced a spiritual revelation which convinced him that all earthly authority (church or state) was corrupt; God's message came to individuals directly through the Inner Light of their personal inspiration. Fox proclaimed his message as he travelled around the Midlands and the North, attracting small groups of followers who called themselves Friends of the Truth, but became popularly known as Quakers . Fox's denunciations of the established church and its ministers alarmed the authorities, leading to periods of imprisonment at Nottingham (1649) and Derby (1650-1). During his imprisonment at Derby, Fox refused a chance to gain his freedom by enlisting in the army raised against the invasion by Charles II and the Scots. His personal pacifism later became an important feature of the Quaker movement as a whole. Upon his release late in 1651, Fox resumed his ministry in Yorkshire and Lancashire.

He called for the abolition of tithes, refused to bow or doff his hat to social superiors and insisted that anyone, including women and children, could speak at Quaker meetings. After experiencing a vision on Pendle Hill in June 1652, Fox travelled to Sedbergh in Westmorland where he addressed a gathering of a thousand people at Firbank Fell. Among the many disciples convinced by Fox's preaching during this period was Margaret Fell (1614-1702), wife of Thomas Fell, a prominent magistrate. Although Thomas Fell never became a convert to the movement, he agreed to extend his protection to persecuted preachers in the regions under his jurisdiction. Margaret Fell became the chief organiser of the Society of Friends and married Fox after the death of her husband. During the mid-1650s, the Quaker movement spread to Bristol, London and southern England. When Fox came to London in March 1655, he was personally interviewed by Lord Protector Cromwell , whom he impressed with his plain speaking and religious sincerity. Despite Cromwell's broadly sympathetic view, however, many Quakers were imprisoned by local magistrates for causing disturbances in their regions.

Fox himself was imprisoned under harsh conditions at Launceston in Cornwall from January to September 1656 when he travelled to the West Country. Following Parliament's prosecution and savage punishment of the charismatic James Nayler under the Blasphemy Act, Fox worked to discourage radicalism and to impose a more formal structure on the Quaker movement. After the fall of the Protectorate in 1659, he lobbied the reconvened Rump Parliament in the hope that the Society of Friends would replace the Church of England as the leading religious group in the nation. His hopes were dashed with the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660 when Quakers were associated with other radical sects as potential enemies of the new régime and Fox himself was imprisoned at Lancaster for five months under suspicion of conspiracy. After the suppression of a violent Fifth Monarchist uprising led by Thomas Venner in January 1661, Fox issued the "Peace Testimony" which committed the Society of Friends to pacifism and non-violence under all circumstances. During the reigns of Charles II and James II, Fox struggled to consolidate the Quaker movement in the face of persecution from the government and internal divisions within the movement itself.

He travelled to the West Indies and the American colonies and visited Ireland, Holland and Germany, but his health was weakened by fourteen months' imprisonment at Worcester for refusing to take the oath required by the Test Act of 1673. While at Worcester, he began dictating his autobiography, also known as his "Journal", which was published posthumously in 1694. George Fox's Autobiography is regarded as a classic of inspirational religious literature, though it tends to downplay or ignore the controversies within the early Quaker movement. Sources: George Fox | Quaker Heritage | George Fox University About George Fox Our Namesake George Fox was a leader in a 17th-century Christian awakening from which came the Quaker movement (now known as the Society of Friends or the Friends Church). During civil strife between royalist and parliamentary forces, the movement spread rapidly across England and in American colonies, in spite of harassment under Commonwealth and Restoration governments that brought property loss, imprisonment, and sometimes death.

By the end of the century, there were 100,000 Quakers, an American colony (Pennsylvania), and a strong public witness to Christian holiness, peace, religious freedom, participatory worship, business integrity and social justice. Many early adherents were drawn from Seeker communities of Northern England. These Christians, disillusioned with monopolistic state religion, whether Catholic, Anglican, Presbyterian, or Independent, had been meeting informally for Bible study and prayer. George Fox forcefully articulated their criticism of the institutional church for its secondhand faith, sin-excusing doctrine, hireling ministry, and compromise with political powers. People responded eagerly to his proclamation of a new Day of the Lord in which the true church is being recovered and kingdom righteousness effected through Christ's presence and power. After the Toleration Act of 1689 granted limited freedom to Quakers, the movement took shape as a denomination, as did other groups arising within Puritan England. Currently approximately 350,000 people worldwide identify themselves as Friends (Quakers). They are most numerous in Africa and the Americas with fewer adherents in Europe/Middle East and Asia/West Pacific.

Within such multicultural pluralism, patterns of worship and ministry vary, but certain distinctive beliefs persist: that Christ revealed outwardly in history is the Light within each person, that women as well as men may minister, and that believers are called to personal holiness and to public righteousness. By Arthur O. Roberts, PhD, Professor at Large, George Fox University George Fox | English religious leader | Britannica.com English religious leader John Woolman George Fox, (born July 1624, Drayton-in-the-Clay, Leicestershire , Eng.—died Jan. 13, 1691, London ), English preacher and missionary and founder of the Society of Friends (or Quakers); his personal religious experience made him hostile to church conventions and established his reliance on what he saw as inward light or God-given inspiration over scriptural authority or creeds. He recorded the birth of the Quaker movement in his Journal. George Fox. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

(LC-USZ62-49456) Early life and activities Fox was the son of a weaver in the English village of Drayton-in-the-Clay (now Fenny Drayton), Leicestershire. Probably apprenticed for a while to a cobbler, he may also have tended sheep, but there is little evidence of any adult business occupation or of much formal education. He always seemed to have a modest amount of money. He read extensively and wrote legibly. At the age of 18 he left home in search of satisfying religious counsel or experience and later reported in his Journal various personal religious experiences or direct revelations, which he called “openings,” that corrected, in his estimation, the traditional concepts of faith and practice in English religious life. His religious background was apparently Puritan rather than strict Anglican, but he himself reacted even further than the Puritans from the formalism and traditionalism of the established church. He placed the God-given inward light (inspiration) above creeds and scripture and regarded personal experience as the true source of authority.

In his Journal he wrote, These things I did not see by the help of man, nor by the letter, though they are written in the letter, but I saw them in the light of the Lord Jesus Christ, and by his immediate Spirit and powers, as did the holy men of God, by whom the Holy Scriptures were written. His negative attitude to ecclesiastical customs was matched by a similar attitude toward some political and economic conventions (e.g., oaths, titles, and military service). He began preaching to individuals or groups as he travelled on foot, first in the Midland counties of England , then in the northern counties, where groups of Seekers (a 17th-century Puritan sect) welcomed him and his message. Local congregations were established, gathered both by Fox and by many other itinerant men and women preachers, who were called Publishers of Truth. Thus came into being in the last years of the British Commonwealth (1649–60) the Society of Friends , as it was much later called, though its members were early nicknamed Quakers. Britannica Stories Ringling Bros.

Folds Its Tent Fox had most success in winning adherents and fellow workers in the Lake District counties of Westmorland and Lancashire and later in Yorkshire, London, and other areas. He and his associates suffered public hostility and official constraint. They offended religious leaders both religiously and politically by their contradiction of the ministers in the churches (based on Fox’s view that ministers “bred at Oxford or Cambridge” were not qualified to be spiritual leaders in the churches) and by their refusal to honour officials, to take oaths, or to pay tithes. Fox and his associates were often arrested and imprisoned. Fox, in fact, suffered eight imprisonments between 1649 and 1673. The restoration of the monarchy in 1660 led to special legislation against the Quakers and a widespread action against them. To meet this and other needs, George Fox encouraged local Quaker groups to organize into regular monthly and quarterly business meetings, which, with some central national meetings, became a permanent pattern of their church government. The continuing pressure was only intermittently relieved until the Toleration Act of 1689, shortly before Fox’s death, gave relief to the Quakers.

Missionary work in England and elsewhere British Culture and Politics In 1669 Fox made a missionary visit to Ireland, and on his return he married one of his early converts, Margaret Fell, the widow of Judge Thomas Fell of Swarthmore Hall, Ulverston, Lancashire, where Fox spent parts of the following years. In the years 1671 to 1673 he traveled to the British colonies in the Caribbean and the North American mainland, strengthening and organizing the existing Quaker communities , especially in Maryland and Rhode Island . Shorter journeys in 1677 and 1684 took him to the Netherlands and a few other parts of northern Europe. About 1675 he dictated a running summary of his life that, with supplementary material, was posthumously edited and published as his Journal. For most of the last 15 years of his life he lived as a boarder or visitor among friends in or about London, attending consultations and committees on practical questions, preaching at meetings for worship, and engaging in a wide correspondence with individual Friends or with congregations to whom he was known.

Britannica Lists & Quizzes Editor Picks: Exploring 10 Types of Basketball Movies Throughout his life, Fox shared the contemporary practice of writing controversial pamphlets, scores of which were published. They dealt with social as well as theological questions but lacked stylistic attraction. Although he was quite familiar with the English Bible , he sometimes displayed a taste for subjects like history and grammar, in which he had little competence. He borrowed information occasionally from his learned friends. Fox evidently was, as Thomas Carlyle says, a man of enormous self-confidence, one who attracted rather than repelled. A magnetic personality, he was widely respected and admired by such men as William Penn , who left in writing an appreciation of Fox that is still the best summary of his character. Fox’s own Journal is naturally not entirely objective, but with its many details it forms the fullest account of the rise of Quakerism, as well as of Fox himself. It is partly due to Fox’s own sense of the historic importance of the Quaker movement that much other early written material was recorded and preserved.

Quaker Founder: George Fox -- Christian Mystic | Hugh McGregor Ross | Quakers | Spiritual Truth George Fox -- Christian Mystic George Fox — Founder of Quakers Unlike some other mystics George Fox resolved to share his experience with others. This became his life's work, and resulted in establishing the community known today as the Religious Society of Friends or Quakers . At a time of political and religious turmoil, early Friends as a people were gathered, guided and ordered by God. From their experience of the immediacy of the presence of Christ sprang the form of worship and the way of life which became the distinctive testimonies of Friends, and which were upheld with courage in the face of great persecution. From the need to make provision for those suffering and the need to set boundaries to individual behaviour, came the insights into 'Gospel Order' and the setting up of meetings for church affairs which were also meetings for discipline**. Over time this resulted in a small document called "Advices and Queries": a concise expression of Quaker faith and practice. Though a small booklet, it is intended for use in meetings, for private devotion and reflection, as a challenge and inspiration to Friends in their personal lives and in their life as a religious community.

It comes with a caveat that is unusual for many religious communities: Dearly beloved Friends, these things we do not lay upon you as a rule or form to walk by, but that all, with the measure of Light which is pure and holy, may be guided; and so in the Light walking and abiding, these may be fulfilled in the Spirit, not from the letter, for the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life. ** Extract from Quaker Faith & Practice

Question: George Fox was the founder of which religious grouping?
Answer: Quakers